Family Home Evening Lessons on The Family: A Proclamation to the World, Lesson #3

As adults, we're all familiar with the different stages of human life: infant, toddler, rugrat, pre and adolescent, full-on know-it-all, still-think-we-know-it-all, starting-to-realize-our-parents-were-right (and that they got their wish of us getting a child just like we were), summer, autumn, winter, etcetera, etcetera…

Well, I have come to believe that we are spiritual beings sent to earth for a mortal experience, not mortal beings randomly here to maybe try and make it a spiritual experience. This is what is told to us in the third paragraph in "The Family: A Proclamation to the World". A simple summary:

1. We lived in Heaven a long time ago with our Eternal Father and lots of other loved ones.
2. Father created a plan for us which we accepted.
3. We each are given a physical body here on Earth to gain experience and prove ourselves worthy of the same glory that our Heavenly Father has.
4. Family relationships are part of the Divine Plan and we will be able to be united eternally through sacred ordinances received in holy temples, and by staying true to covenants that we make with our Heavenly Father.

Is it so hard to believe that we, too, are eternal beings? Eternal beings going through the stages of eternal life? I wish it were as easy for everyone to believe as it is for me.

Anywho, I had no idea how to turn this topic into a fun family home evening. I have done numerous activities with the children on the Plan of Salvation so it was old hat. So, I stood there in the living room looking at the carving on the mantle, just thinking. Waiting for the Spirit to communicate with me. Slowly… it came.

"What if we make a movie?"

This didn't get much of a response.

"We could pretend we are in Heaven and we hear the news that we are going to get a physical body and come to earth."

This got their attention. I kept blabbering all my ideas and their eyes kept getting bigger and they started smiling and interjecting their own ideas. So, we spent the afternoon making up scripts, and outfits, and filming.We were inside, in Heaven, where the furniture is all draped in white.



Then we were in a newsroom, where Didi Doorama did the nightly news report.















Then we were outside where Suzie Buttercup interviewed people on the streets, and Bob did a report on making worlds.


















Then we were back inside with Harper Finkle who interviewed Professor Doright, an expert on all things celestial.

As I got the dvd put together, the children made movie tickets and popcorn. Our family had a Movie Night. We watched it a few times and enjoyed many laughs together.

My 11 year old daughter said this will be something she remembers for the rest of her life.

I'm way too self-conscious to share the whole movie because I'm really good at acting like a dork, but I am thankful for the spiritual guidance I receive as a mom and for the fun time we had together creating this memory.

Family Home Evening Lessons on The Family: A Proclamation to the World, Lesson #2

The second paragraph in the the Proclamation on the family contains only three sentences, but tells us so much about ourselves, our purposes, and our destinies. I'll just quote it here and let you ruminate at your will:













"All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose."



I love knowing that God is not a vague, mysterious being, but is the Father of my spirit. Not only am I His daughter, I am his beloved daughter. I know what I am capable of because I know the characteristics of my Heavenly Father.



So, we as a family read this together and talked about our divine natures verses our human natures. For the activity, we each drew a picture of ourselves and put them onto a poster that now hangs in our kitchen.

Family Home Evening Lessons on The Family: A Proclamation to the World #1

I did a lot of searching for ideas on the first paragraph of the family proclamation. It was a rocky start because most of my children are young and I didn't want to make it all serious. Porter saw me researching and he saw a picture of a paper family tree. He asked me what it was and I told him I was thinking of doing that for family night. He popped up and offered to make it himself. Of course, I took him up on that offer.

So, we started by having the kids read aloud the first paragraph right off of the wood carving we have on our mantle.The younger five were already standing in the middle of the room so I stood behind Morgan, our rambunctious seven year old, and kept him occupied by keeping my hands on him and moving around the room as we faced different directions depending on who our focus was on.

We began by discussing what it means for something to be "ordained of God". I won't tell you specifics because your family would have to handle that based on your own situation like your children's ages; they're attention spans (your husband's attention span); and how deeply you want to explore these principles.

We then discussed that the family is central to the Creator's plan for the eternal destiny of His children. We talked about what a plan is. We brought up the adversary to God's plan, best known as the devil, commonly known as Satan, and to Latter-Day Saints known as Lucifer, another of God's spirit children who was cast out of Father's presence for rebellion.

We talked about how America has enemies like the terrorists, who destroyed the Twin Towers and hundreds of lives, and how an enemy would attack where ever it would cause the greatest debilitation.

"So," I posed the question, "if the family is central to God's plan, where would the adversary focus most of his attention?"

They quickly caught on and we discussed the many, many, many ways that families can become vulnerable and how the world's status quo disagrees with the principles of truth and righteousness.

It was then time to pull out the adorable family tree that Porter designed for us (I'm sorry Shanelle!), and we each glued our own leaf on. I wrapped up our discussion by looking each of my children in the eyes and telling them that we loved them very much; that they are the most important aspect of our lives. And that even though family life is not always fun and pleasant they are worth all the frustrations and hardships that we face as parents. I also opened up my heart and expressed to them my personal belief that Father has given us a Plan of Happiness and that if we will strive to live by the teachings of Christ and obey the commandments our lives will be so much easier and happier.

I haven't yet planned next week's Family Home Evening, but as we learned from doing the 6 B's from President Hinckley, it is really neat having a themed series because the kids know that next week is going to be connected to last week and they are interested in what is coming next. I'll try to keep you posted.

Family Home Evening Lesson idea for this month.

Family home evenings have always been a challenge for our multi-aged family. It used to be that I would just come up with something real quick in the 15 minutes before we gather.Usually, something preschoolish. However, my 16 yr old son has been going to football workouts and practices which usually run til 8 pm. After fuming about our LDS coaches who are missing out on an opportunity to teach our boys a greater lesson, we told our son that he was required to be home by 7 pm on Mondays and Tuesdays for FHE and Mutual, respectively. This has made me take Family Home Evening much more seriously and I've been following all the inspirations the Spirit gives me for lessons that my family needs.

After 6 weeks of great discussions and very moving character lessons using the 6 B's of Pres. Hinckley, I am now leaning towards using The Family: A Proclamation to the World for a while. The great news is that there are bloggers out there holding a "Celebrate the Family" celebration. I first discovered this last year on Latter-Day Homeschooling. Chocolate on My Cranium is the blog hosting it this year, I believe. There is a Family Proclamation blog-hop and lots of inspiring posts.

I'm so glad for those inspired parents who are willing to share their ideas and look forward to helping my children understand the significance of the document that their father has been carving into wood for the past year. They have even helped to apply the glaze onto the plaques to earn some money.

I am thankful for the divine qualities inherent in each member of the family and for the word of God which testifies of the purpose for family.